1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contactless communication tag, a portable tag reader, and a method of providing genuineness information of a product, and more particularly, to a tag that is attached to various brands of products and provides information of a corresponding product, a tag reader that makes it possible to determine the genuineness of a product by reading out and displaying information of a tag, and a method of providing genuineness information of a product, in which information about the genuineness of a product is provided to a user by decrypting information stored in a tag and outputting the decrypted information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. Hei 14-215749 and Hei 14-209692 disclose techniques for identifying product information and carrying out purchasing and commodities management by using a tag that has electrically recorded thereon the product information and conducts communication in a contactless manner and a portable tag reader that reads out information recorded in the tag. However, since these techniques do not concern determination of the genuineness of a product, recording or reading of information is very vulnerable and there is a possibility of counterfeiting the information or manipulating recording of the information.
As another conventional approach, Korean Patent Publication No. 2002-85144 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. Hei 13-354310 and Hei 13-341810 disclose network-type genuineness determining systems that read out product information electrically recorded on a contactless communication tag, refers to a product management database via a communication network like the Internet, and determines the genuineness of a corresponding product. However, to use the network-type systems, a tag reader should be manufactured in the form of a desktop, in the case of exchanging data with the product management database via wired communication network. As a result, to determine the genuineness of a product, a visit to a specified place should be made. Also, in the case of exchanging data with the product management database via wireless communication network, as the size of a tag reader increases, the tag reader becomes unhandy to carry, a cost price of the tag reader increases, and a charge is imposed on the use of a wireless communication network every time the tag reader is used. Moreover, in the case of the tag reader manufactured in the form of a desktop, since the genuineness of a product is only determined in a specified place, the genuineness of the product cannot be determined prior to purchasing.
As another conventional approach, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. Hei 12-348148 and Hei 12-148950 disclose techniques in which a tag reader determines the genuineness of a product by reading out product information electrically recorded on a contacless communication tag and comparing the read information with reference data (a product number, a date of manufacture, a product manufacture brand name, management history information, a product description) that is previously stored therein. However, such an offline-type authentication device solves the problem of the network-type systems, but memory capacity increases because the tag reader should previously store all the product information for every product. Also, since the tag reader itself determines the genuineness of a product and provides only a result of the self determination, a user cannot directly check information of an authentication procedure and reliability of the authentication procedure is low. In other words, this conventional tag reader only considers a position of product distributors, but is not satisfactory for the needs of product purchasers. Also, this conventional tag reader has problems that new products that are distributed after purchasing of the tag reader or products of newly joined companies cannot be the subject of genuineness determination or product information of already distributed tag readers should be updated. Also, the above conventional approaches do not consider a case where the tag is detached from the product and attached to a counterfeit product.
To solve such problems, Korean Patent Publication No. 2001-89216, Korean Utility Model Registration No. 252202, and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. Hei 12-251164 disclose genuineness determining devices that include a contactless communication tag in which product information attached to a product is stored and a tag reader. The genuineness determining devices prevent the reuse of a tag by destroying an antenna if the tag is detached from the product. However, application of these conventional genuineness determining devices is limited to special products such as bottling products and a proactive measure may be taken to prevent physical destroy of the tag. Also, since the tag itself is destroyed, even manufacturers cannot read tag reading history information to use the tag reading history information for customer-oriented marketing.